The Philadelphia Eagles had a practice that the media were allowed to watch on Tuesday. It was short, and there's almost no hitting this time of year, but we still have some notes.
• Let's start with players not in attendance (in alphabetical order, and h/t to Dave Zangaro for taking attendance on guys like Elijah Cooks):
- WR Elijah Cooks
- TE E.J. Jenkins
- WR DeVonta Smith
- WR Johnny Wilson
C Cam Jurgens (back) and newcomer WR/RS Avery Williams (injury unknown) worked out on a side field. Williams played CB his rookie season in Atlanta before moving to the other side of the ball at RB. He's now listed on the Eagles' website as a WR.
Rookie LB Jihaad Campbell (shoulder) and Nakobe Dean (knee) attended but did not participate. Vic Fangio said during his press conference on Tuesday that Dean wouldn't be ready to play "anytime soon." Campbell had his helmet on during practice, almost like a little kid wearing a baseball glove while watching a baseball game on TV. Fangio said Campbell should be ready to practice in August.
RT Lane Johnson, LG Landon Dickerson, and S Reed Blankenship were back at practice after missing last week's media-attended OTA practice. FB Ben VanSumeren also did some stuff as he continues to recover from his season-ending knee injury from last season.
RB Saquon Barkley didn't do anything last week, but he got a few team reps on Tuesday.
And, of course, Bryce Huff is off to San Francisco after passing his physical.
• The first-, second-, and third-team offensive lines:
| LT | LG | C | RG | RT |
| Jordan Mailata | Landon Dickerson | Brett Toth | Tyler Steen | Lane Johnson |
| Kendall Lamm | Kenyon Green | Drew Kendall | Matt Pryor | Darian Kinnard |
| Cameron Williams | Hollin Pierce | Drew Kendall | Laekin Vakalahi | Myles Hinton |
The starting RG job and all of the backup spots will be fun battles to watch through training camp this summer.
Second-year pro Trevor Keegan also got some second-team reps at LG, but if he can't also play some center, I have to think his stock is down.
In the year 2047, Toth will still be getting first-team reps during spring practices.
• Last week, Sydney Brown and Andrew Mukuba got first-team reps with Blankenship missing practice. This week, with Blankenship on the field, Brown and Mukuba both got first-team reps, but Brown was up first and got more first-team reps overall.
During his pre-practice press conference, Vic Fangio said that Cooper DeJean will play in the slot in nickel, and volunteered without any prodding that he'd have to find a spot for him in base, whether that was at outside corner or safety. I was curious to see if DeJean would get any reps at safety, but he did not.
• As we noted in our practice notes last week, the first drills of the day focused on creating turnovers. Takeaways were a huge part of the Eagles' Super Bowl run last season, and that wasn't by accident. Here's a block destruction / Peanut Punch drill that the team started the day off with on Tuesday.
The Eagles also ran ball security drills. I liked one drill in which each offensive player had to run through two staffers. One staffer had a helmet on a stick, and the other had a boxing glove on a stick. The ball carrier had to stiff-arm the helmet and hold the ball high and tight while the other coach tried to jab it out with the boxing glove. The boxing glove guy was able to jar one ball loose, from free agent WR Terrace Marshall. I was curious if Marshall has a history of fumbling, and, yep. 67 career receptions, 3 fumbles.
• We noted last week that barely any throws hit the ground. There was more of the same of that from Jalen Hurts on Tuesday, as he was accurate to all levels of the field. His best throw was a perfect deep ball down the left sideline to Dallas Goedert. Zack Baun actually had very good coverage on the play, but the throw and catch were just too good.
• Rookie sixth-round QB Kyle McCord had an eye-opening throw. He connected on a dart through traffic in the middle of the field to TE Kylen Granson. McCord has pretty obvious arm talent, and he's going to make the team.
• Remember the flyswatters during the Chip Kelly era? During 7-on-7s, Chip would have three staffers posing as pass rushers wearing these big flyswatter-looking things on their backs that extended a few feet above their heads. They looked a little like this:
The staffers would then mush rush the quarterback. The design was to make quarterbacks throw through passing windows at the line of scrimmage. Michael Vick hated them.
Well, they're back, but they look a little different. The Nick Sirianni version look more like big, wide arms, and Nick has four staffers wearing them and "rushing" the passer. They look more like this:
• Free agent Danny Gray was super active throughout practice. He made about a half dozen catches, and also got kick return reps. Gray has 4.33 speed, and was a 49ers third-round pick in 2022. He's kind of a sleeper to make the team. Gray did have one drop, when Parry Nickerson was able to punch the ball out at the catch point.
• Speaking of punch-outs, defenders are constantly trying to punch the ball out of ball carriers' hands, like, on every rep, and with some force. Adoree' Jackson at one point tried to punch the ball out of Dallas Goedert's arms, and hit him in the hand. A not-so-happy Goedert then fired the ball into the concrete steps at the NovaCare Complex.
- MORE EAGLES
- Nolan Smith is carrying the torch for the Eagles at EDGE, but won't fill Brandon Graham's shoes
- Cooper DeJean could play safety for the Eagles, too, Vic Fangio says
- Bryce Huff trade finalized, Eagles get conditional 5th-round pick from 49ers
• Jahan Dotson's best attribute coming out of college was his hands. He rarely dropped anything at Penn State. Oddly, he did have his fair share of drops in his first two seasons in the pros with Washington.
I was watching him during a drill in which the receivers were making one-handed catches, and he was nonchalantly hauling in everything, while it was harder for the other receivers. If he can at least show that he will catch everything that he should catch, perhaps he could gain more trust from Jalen Hurts this season. (It's worth noting that Dotson had 0 drops for the Eagles in 2024, per pro-football-reference.com.)
• Rookie fifth-round CB Mac McWilliams had a nice pass breakup on a ball intended for Granson, to the praise of a number of his defensive teammates. McWilliams has some inside-outside versatility, and could be the backup slot corner this season behind DeJean.
• I thought the vibes were pristine for a spring practice. Players practiced hard and got their work in, but also joked around and talked some trash. I suppose that coming off a Super Bowl win will do that.
The next media-attended practice will be during a one-day mandatory minicamp next Tuesday.
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